Climate change

Having been denied a request for an extended schedule, petitioners in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the merits of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for coal-fired power plants late on January 23 filed a series of briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The briefs filed […]

The Trump administration will scrap executive actions to curb U.S. carbon pollution from power plants and other climate measures outlined in the Obama administration’s landmark Climate Action Plan, according to an “energy plan” published by President Donald Trump’s White House minutes after he was inaugurated January 20. Under the White House’s plan, the Trump administration […]

Petra Nova—a commercial-scale post-combustion carbon capture project designed to remove more than 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from a 240-MW slipstream of flue gas off of the W.A. Parish generating station in Fort Bend County, Texas—has been completed, according to project partners NRG Energy Inc. and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. The […]

Beyond major reliability events that have prompted regional blackouts in the past, the U.S. grid faces “imminent danger from cyber attacks,” warns the second installation of the Obama administration’s Quadrennial Energy Review (QER). Here are other key trends outlined in the comprehensive study of the nation’s electricity system. The QER, available on the DOE web site, identifies the threats, […]

If the Clean Power Plan is scrapped or weakened, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may be forced to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by existing power plant with wider repercussions under its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) program, experts have warned. While President-Elect Donald Trump promised to “scrap” the Clean Power Plan during his […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first loan guarantee under an $8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects may go to a methanol production facility in Lake Charles, La., that will employ carbon capture technology for enhanced oil recovery. The DOE said in a statement on December 21 that it offered a conditional commitment to […]

In a joint statement on December 20, the leaders of the United States and Canada announced that they had developed a new partnership that effectively bans additional licenses for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and parts of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has abandoned an interagency review of draft model carbon trading rules that were issued alongside the final Clean Power Plan to make associated documents public before the Trump administration takes the reins at the agency. The agency proposed the model trading rules as components of state implementation plans that it […]

A joint strategy released by the governments of the U.S. and Canada to thwart the growing threat of cyberattacks on the electric grid sets three priorities that the countries said would be critical to preserving energy and national security. The “Joint United States-Canada Electric Grid Security and Resilience Strategy,” released on December 15, outlines three […]

After a lengthy process of give and take, the Illinois Legislature approved the Future Energy Jobs Bill (SB 2814) on December 1, the last day of the state’s veto session. The bill will now go to Gov. Rauner (R) for his signature, which is expected. Once signed, it will take effect on June 1, 2017, […]